June 24, 2025 • 10 mins
“Do not judge”—one of the most quoted verses in the Bible, and also one of the most misunderstood. In this episode, we dive deep into Matthew 7:1–5 to uncover what Jesus really meant.
This isn’t a call to abandon discernment—it’s a challenge to abandon hypocrisy.
✅ What you’ll learn:
-
The difference between righteous and unrighteous judgment
-
Why context matters when interpreting Scripture
-
How to lead with humility rather than condemnation
-
How Jesus’ teaching applies to cancel culture, online outrage, and church disagreements
From planks and specks to social media and real-world relationships, this conversation will challenge you to examine your heart, not just others’ actions.
💡 “Judging isn’t the problem—hypocritical judging is.”
Tune in and discover how to walk in grace, truth, and accountability.
#Podcast #Matthew7 #BiblicalJudgment #JesusSaid #ChristianLiving #GraceAndTruth #CancelCulture #DiscernmentNotCondemnation #podcast #biblecontext #SocialMediaProphets
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
The Bible is full of wonderful stories, parables, sometimes historical accounts.
But what happens when we use the Bible out of context?
What happens when we take a verse and we try to apply it to something that is not
what it was originally intended?
We end up creating a culture that has problems.
(00:24):
Welcome to the HHP Podcast.
My name is Chris Frankie and I am the senior pastor of HFF Church in Oklahoma City.
Join me and others from around the country as we talk all things Bible,
church and family.
We may be right.
We may be heretical, but that's for you to decide.
Drop a like, a share, a comment, subscribe, and let's get to it.
(00:47):
Can you imagine how hard it is when you hear somebody say something who you have a
relationship with and you think it means one thing or you react or do something
you act in a way because of that only to find out that that was never their
intention or that's what they were not trying to say.
(01:09):
Well, it happens all the time to us.
How much harder is it when you take the words of somebody who wrote something two
to 3000 years ago in a place a lot of us have never been?
It can happen a lot.
And this is why we have Bible verses that sometimes are used out of the context of
(01:30):
the entirety of the writing of the author.
Today, we're going to look at Matthew chapter seven, verses one through five.
It says, "Judge not that you be not judged, for with the judgment you pronounce,
you will be judged and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.
Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the
(01:54):
log that is in your own or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck
out of your eye when there is a log in your eye.
You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye and then you will see clearly
to take the speck out of your brother's eye."
This verse is commonly used as a verse with a very short meaning.
(02:21):
Don't judge or you will be judged.
This is not a command to suspend all moral discernment or judgment.
Rather, it's a warning against hypocritical, harsh or self-righteous judgment.
You can't judge someone in a way differently than how you would judge yourself.
You can't pass judgment on an individual that is with a different weight than
(02:46):
yourself that would then allow you to feel better about the sins that you are created.
So let's look at this in context.
Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye and pay no attention
to the plank in your own?
This is verse three, Jesus is speaking.
Here we see Jesus is clearly not telling people never to judge.
(03:08):
He's not telling people you're not allowed to judge.
He's absolutely saying that you need to examine yourself first before
you call someone else out.
This way you avoid judging somebody else with pride or hypocrisy.
It's very, very easy for us to judge somebody else in a manner that we're
(03:31):
not willing to judge ourselves.
Jesus is saying, especially in that cultural context, stop it.
Fix yourself first.
You have to judge yourself first to see if maybe you need to afford some grace or
(03:52):
if maybe you can offer some counsel on how to fix that, but you would be doing so
from a place of humility, not a place of self-righteousness and pride.
Discernment is needed when you're calling sin what it is.
Why?
Because sin comes with guilt, shame, and condemnation.
(04:14):
Every person listening to this, every person who will hear this clearly understands
that if you want to actually be transparent and truthful about where we're at, all
humans have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
So all of us know that we need a little bit more love, a little bit more humility.
That is allowed.
(04:34):
That is discernment and how we call out sin.
Yet condemnation, which is what most of us get, or most of us think is happening, is
elevating yourself while you're tearing down another person.
That's hypocrisy.
If you have the same sin as somebody else and you're so actively engaged in that
(04:57):
sin, then you probably need to close your mouth and stop speaking to somebody else.
If you've overcome that, then you are to use that testimony and discern how to use
that testimony to help somebody else.
But if you're not currently practicing that, if the people who are testifying about
you don't testify, that's what your walk is.
(05:18):
Then you're just being condemning to somebody.
In fact, later on in Matthew, the same attack chapter in Matthew 7 15, Jesus says,
watch out for false prophets.
This requires judgment, but the right kind.
You are to watch out, but how are you to determine that they're false prophets?
(05:40):
And God goes on in that chapter of Matthew to tell you how.
So Matthew chapter 7 verses 1 through 5 is actually not a call about judgment or
non-judgment at all.
It's actually a call to walk in humility.
You should not act as if you are the final authority on someone else's worth or
salvation.
(06:01):
Instead, you are to judge with mercy, accountability, and the awareness that God
will measure you by the same exact standard that you apply to other people.
Judging is not actually the problem.
It's your hypocritical judging.
That is judgment is absolutely important.
The Bible is full of judgments, but understanding that God is the only one who
(06:24):
can do that righteously and God is the only one who can do that from a place of
holiness, not condemnation should bring you to humility.
So what can we do with this scripture today?
How can we apply it?
We need to fight against the cancel culture.
We need to fight against the cancel culture with compassion.
(06:46):
People are going to make mistakes.
People are going to do things they shouldn't do.
I'm going to do them.
You're going to do them.
Everybody's going to do that.
The Bible is crystal clear about that.
So rather than trying to cancel somebody because they fell, we should try to use
compassion to restore them.
The Bible is all about restoration and a world quick to cancel you over your
(07:08):
mistake.
Jesus's word should call us all to humility and grace.
And instead of condemning others publicly or online, we're reminded to look
inwardly and deal with their own faults.
First, we should always be about restoration.
When there's disagreements amongst believers, we often divide.
We divide over theology, politics, church practices.
(07:33):
Iran and Israel are at conflict right now.
And you've got some people who are saying Israel is a horrible state.
You've got some people who are saying Iran's a horrible state and this is just
in Christianity.
So everybody is going to be divided over theology, politics or church practices.
A lot of people will go online and they'll create ministries just calling out the
(07:54):
anti-biblical things from their perspective on ministries or persons or whatever.
And I'm not saying you're not to call out sin.
We've already addressed that in this podcast, but we're not to be dividing over
theology, politics or church practices.
A lot of those are actually preferences.
And so preferences are allowed in the Bible when they are not sin or they are
(08:17):
not causing you to transgress the commandments of Jesus.
This verse also should remind us that to have a disagreement is not dishonoring.
Now you can disagree and not be divisive.
Most people disagree and are divisive or miss.
Most people disagree and are dishonoring.
(08:39):
We can uphold truth while we're still treating each other with dignity.
Most people just retreat to their house and go on social media and refuse to
actually develop the relationship.
That leads me to the final one.
Social media judgment online platforms have made it so much easier for you to
get information for you to pass judgment either aggressively or passive aggressively.
(09:05):
Uh, behind the screen where you don't have to look at somebody face to face where
you don't actually have to go sit in the mud with them and recognize their
brokenness or the hurt or the chaos or the catastrophe that's there.
A lot of people sit on social media and they pass judgment in a lot of ways,
but they absolutely refuse to do any type of Bible things in real life.
(09:28):
My challenge to you comes directly from Matthew seven where God is telling us,
why don't you pause before posting?
Why don't you pray before posting?
Why don't you seek to go to an understanding, a discernment instead of an
accusation, why don't you go sit in the mud with a person before you decide that
(09:53):
you're going to plaster social media about that person and in the end only
kindness matters because that's what Jesus was doing.
If this podcast has blessed you, please consider supporting by visiting our
website and making a donation for more resources, blogs, podcasts, please visit
(10:14):
us at hff.church. Looking for a church home?
Join us for Saturday church in OKC every Saturday morning, starting at 1030.
The Bible is full of wonderful stories, parables, sometimes historical accounts.
But what happens when we use the Bible out of context?
What happens when we take a verse and we try to apply it to something that is not
what it was originally intended?
We end up creating a culture that has problems.
(00:24):
Welcome to the HHP Podcast.
My name is Chris Frankie and I am the senior pastor of HFF Church in Oklahoma City.
Join me and others from around the country as we talk all things Bible,
church and family.
We may be right.
We may be heretical, but that's for you to decide.
Drop a like, a share, a comment, subscribe, and let's get to it.
(00:47):
Can you imagine how hard it is when you hear somebody say something who you have a
relationship with and you think it means one thing or you react or do something
you act in a way because of that only to find out that that was never their
intention or that's what they were not trying to say.
(01:09):
Well, it happens all the time to us.
How much harder is it when you take the words of somebody who wrote something two
to 3000 years ago in a place a lot of us have never been?
It can happen a lot.
And this is why we have Bible verses that sometimes are used out of the context of
(01:30):
the entirety of the writing of the author.
Today, we're going to look at Matthew chapter seven, verses one through five.
It says, "Judge not that you be not judged, for with the judgment you pronounce,
you will be judged and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.
Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the
(01:54):
log that is in your own or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck
out of your eye when there is a log in your eye.
You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye and then you will see clearly
to take the speck out of your brother's eye."
This verse is commonly used as a verse with a very short meaning.
(02:21):
Don't judge or you will be judged.
This is not a command to suspend all moral discernment or judgment.
Rather, it's a warning against hypocritical, harsh or self-righteous judgment.
You can't judge someone in a way differently than how you would judge yourself.
You can't pass judgment on an individual that is with a different weight than
(02:46):
yourself that would then allow you to feel better about the sins that you are created.
So let's look at this in context.
Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye and pay no attention
to the plank in your own?
This is verse three, Jesus is speaking.
Here we see Jesus is clearly not telling people never to judge.
(03:08):
He's not telling people you're not allowed to judge.
He's absolutely saying that you need to examine yourself first before
you call someone else out.
This way you avoid judging somebody else with pride or hypocrisy.
It's very, very easy for us to judge somebody else in a manner that we're
(03:31):
not willing to judge ourselves.
Jesus is saying, especially in that cultural context, stop it.
Fix yourself first.
You have to judge yourself first to see if maybe you need to afford some grace or
(03:52):
if maybe you can offer some counsel on how to fix that, but you would be doing so
from a place of humility, not a place of self-righteousness and pride.
Discernment is needed when you're calling sin what it is.
Why?
Because sin comes with guilt, shame, and condemnation.
(04:14):
Every person listening to this, every person who will hear this clearly understands
that if you want to actually be transparent and truthful about where we're at, all
humans have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
So all of us know that we need a little bit more love, a little bit more humility.
That is allowed.
(04:34):
That is discernment and how we call out sin.
Yet condemnation, which is what most of us get, or most of us think is happening, is
elevating yourself while you're tearing down another person.
That's hypocrisy.
If you have the same sin as somebody else and you're so actively engaged in that
(04:57):
sin, then you probably need to close your mouth and stop speaking to somebody else.
If you've overcome that, then you are to use that testimony and discern how to use
that testimony to help somebody else.
But if you're not currently practicing that, if the people who are testifying about
you don't testify, that's what your walk is.
(05:18):
Then you're just being condemning to somebody.
In fact, later on in Matthew, the same attack chapter in Matthew 7 15, Jesus says,
watch out for false prophets.
This requires judgment, but the right kind.
You are to watch out, but how are you to determine that they're false prophets?
(05:40):
And God goes on in that chapter of Matthew to tell you how.
So Matthew chapter 7 verses 1 through 5 is actually not a call about judgment or
non-judgment at all.
It's actually a call to walk in humility.
You should not act as if you are the final authority on someone else's worth or
salvation.
(06:01):
Instead, you are to judge with mercy, accountability, and the awareness that God
will measure you by the same exact standard that you apply to other people.
Judging is not actually the problem.
It's your hypocritical judging.
That is judgment is absolutely important.
The Bible is full of judgments, but understanding that God is the only one who
(06:24):
can do that righteously and God is the only one who can do that from a place of
holiness, not condemnation should bring you to humility.
So what can we do with this scripture today?
How can we apply it?
We need to fight against the cancel culture.
We need to fight against the cancel culture with compassion.
(06:46):
People are going to make mistakes.
People are going to do things they shouldn't do.
I'm going to do them.
You're going to do them.
Everybody's going to do that.
The Bible is crystal clear about that.
So rather than trying to cancel somebody because they fell, we should try to use
compassion to restore them.
The Bible is all about restoration and a world quick to cancel you over your
(07:08):
mistake.
Jesus's word should call us all to humility and grace.
And instead of condemning others publicly or online, we're reminded to look
inwardly and deal with their own faults.
First, we should always be about restoration.
When there's disagreements amongst believers, we often divide.
We divide over theology, politics, church practices.
(07:33):
Iran and Israel are at conflict right now.
And you've got some people who are saying Israel is a horrible state.
You've got some people who are saying Iran's a horrible state and this is just
in Christianity.
So everybody is going to be divided over theology, politics or church practices.
A lot of people will go online and they'll create ministries just calling out the
(07:54):
anti-biblical things from their perspective on ministries or persons or whatever.
And I'm not saying you're not to call out sin.
We've already addressed that in this podcast, but we're not to be dividing over
theology, politics or church practices.
A lot of those are actually preferences.
And so preferences are allowed in the Bible when they are not sin or they are
(08:17):
not causing you to transgress the commandments of Jesus.
This verse also should remind us that to have a disagreement is not dishonoring.
Now you can disagree and not be divisive.
Most people disagree and are divisive or miss.
Most people disagree and are dishonoring.
(08:39):
We can uphold truth while we're still treating each other with dignity.
Most people just retreat to their house and go on social media and refuse to
actually develop the relationship.
That leads me to the final one.
Social media judgment online platforms have made it so much easier for you to
get information for you to pass judgment either aggressively or passive aggressively.
(09:05):
Uh, behind the screen where you don't have to look at somebody face to face where
you don't actually have to go sit in the mud with them and recognize their
brokenness or the hurt or the chaos or the catastrophe that's there.
A lot of people sit on social media and they pass judgment in a lot of ways,
but they absolutely refuse to do any type of Bible things in real life.
(09:28):
My challenge to you comes directly from Matthew seven where God is telling us,
why don't you pause before posting?
Why don't you pray before posting?
Why don't you seek to go to an understanding, a discernment instead of an
accusation, why don't you go sit in the mud with a person before you decide that
(09:53):
you're going to plaster social media about that person and in the end only
kindness matters because that's what Jesus was doing.
If this podcast has blessed you, please consider supporting by visiting our
website and making a donation for more resources, blogs, podcasts, please visit
(10:14):
us at hff.church. Looking for a church home?
Join us for Saturday church in OKC every Saturday morning, starting at 1030.
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